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Goal Setting With Our Mastermind

As much as I agree with it, let me be the first to say that HOW you make your plan is less important than having one. So I’m going to share how our mastermind does it, and encourage you to tailor it so it suits your style and character.

We use a page called the Progress Monitor.

It’s a template we fill in every Friday and share with each other for accountability.

The first thing we do is list everything we accomplished that week. It’s an opportunity for us to recognise ourselves – our own successes – and for each of us to acknowledge the successes of the others.

Then we list what projects we’re going to work on during the next week. With each project, we list specific activities we want to complete and assign them deadlines. And even though a particular project might take weeks or months to accomplish, we try to list only 3 or 4 activities to complete each week.

You can see how what we’re doing is breaking big projects down into manageable bits. And we share what we’re doing so we have accountability. There’s something very encouraging about sharing what you want to do with people who support you in getting it done.

By the way, when you participate in a mastermind it’s incredibly important that everyone in the group is supportive. Be quick to get rid of anyone who avoids taking action or who is in any way inclined to pull down others.

We also have the Progress Monitor formatted so it prints on 3 ring, lined, binder paper. So once it’s printed, we can make notes on it easily. (We were surprised by how well it prints onto lined paper, and how well it works for adding notes and changes throughout the week.)

And that’s it. Simple, cool and effective.

We limit ourselves to 4 or 5 things we work on each week, and just 3 or 4 activities for each project. After all, we have businesses to run, too. So even though our goals and projects are related to the business, we have to keep in mind that there are day to day activities to look after, too.

How do you handle your goals and achieving them? I’ve seen folks use index cards, calendar pads, and even keeping a journal. Personally, I can’t seem to develop the habit for keeping a journal. Maybe it’s because I write for a living, and the short form notes in the Progress Monitor are a relief from regular writing.

How about you? I’d like to know how you keep track of goals and your progress. Leave a comment, and maybe we’ll end up helping someone get better at their goal setting. Thanks.